Ferrari's quali pace was a massive shock I've been around enough glamour-pusses to not be interested in them
I think the key to Hamilton not making a bigger improvement and having a bigger lead in Q3 may be found in this statement by Rosberg. I think Mercedes are afraid Hamilton's engine might go POP....so they have cut back the performance a bit...just enough to cover Ferrari. That's my opinion. “It’s a really big compromise and that’s the reason why I’m fourth today, which makes the race tomorrow tough. Also, I will be a bit slower in the race which is not ideal and it will be difficult against those Ferraris.” Despite Ferrari appearing to make up ground on the Mercedes this weekend, Rosberg believes the gap closing has more to do with Mercedes limiting their performance than Ferrari improving theirs.
Yeah judging by the gaps I don't think Hamilton go the most out of the car, either because he ****ed up or because he knew it was in the bag and didn't try.
Hamiltons quali lap looked pretty good, not amazing but certainly not bad. Either they're concentrating on race pace or with the pu failure they decided to turn Hamiltons down. Or.... we can be hopeful here, ferrari are better than we thought
I got the impression that in relation to engine sustainability they were more worried about the race. Ted touched on this in his notebook and referred to Nico's issue not being an out and out power deficit (although I expect the new engine to both more powerful and efficient) but the fact that it is on its 6th race. The age and use of this engine against a fresh one will likely show a deficit and probably effect how hard they run it in the race. In relation to quali I can't imagine that either driver were restricted for their hot laps, if they were then they have Bob Hope in the race.
I think Ferrari will split the strategies today. Kimi was given the tow to help get further up the grid so I'd say he's two stopping, with Vettel on the one stop. Put Mercedes into a strategy dilemma.
Where are the conspiracy theorists right now from last year? It always seems to be Rosberg's car this year, and if it wasn't for Ricciardo taking him out in Hungary he'd be leading the championship or pretty much level.
Rosberg has an engine that has already done six races. Why does Mercedes have no other better suitable spares.
I guess Mercedes were trying to save him cracking open a 4th PU, they have no spare updated versions so it would hobble Rosberg for the rest of the season. No one else is mentioning anything happening to Rosbegs car so I think it's all good.
Do I need any more proof of him just being a terrible driver nowadays? More than likely he'll cause a crash in the next load of laps by lunging from 200m behind and then blaming the other driver..
